Escalier balancé

English translation: angled staircase

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If you\'ve had some experience of fitting carpet in a room, you could save money by laying your own stair carpet. This is how to tackle a straight run of stairs - angled stairs use the same technique but the excess carpet must be folded up against the risers.
Buy the best carpet you can afford since stairs take a lot of wear and tear.

Time to complete job: 2-3 hours.
Approximate budget: From around £40, depending on the quality of the carpet.

I disagree with Bourth. These are generic stair types even if the minor features are different. I am seeing, Straight, Curved and Angled Stairs...

Obviously, the deepness of the step, whether the angled bit is handled by curving the steps around the bend or having a small landing without steps is irrelevant.

what I meant by disagree BNourth is that the general category is angled., now there may be a sub-category. But when I see that used on a English web site that rents to Brits, then I know it\'s Ok as a general idea. I am not disputing your detailed and intimate knowledge of French angled staircases..I am just saying that in this description angled sufficed..that\'s where my disaagrement lies.

Bourth's description was spot on (I had an illustration), but I used Jane's answer "angled staircases", as it was for a caption and space was too limited to include an explanation. It was for a document aimed at non-specialists, anyway.4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

it was the customer! I had to hand the translation in by lunchtime yesterday (French time), so thank you for the additional information, Bourth, but I had to base my decision on what I had at the time...

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Answers

1 hr confidence:

Escalier balancé

typically French

Explanation:Normally - I say "normally" because your definition is not exactly that of an escalier balancé - this is a typically French staircase. You can see a picture of it at http://www.mev.be/classiqu1.htm;

It does indeed involve a quarter or half turn between the two flights, but unlike "English" stairs where the steps in the straight flights are all parallel to each other, and wheel round in a quarter or half circle where they join, these "dancing steps" as they are called in English - which are complicated to make - start off with the top and bottom 2 or 3 steps parallel, then each subsequent step is angled slightly, i.e. the end on the "inside" of the turn is moved forward slightly, the other end being moved back. This gives much more and practically totally regular foot space in the middle of each tread, unlike trad. English (and modern French) dogleg stairs where there is practically none in the bend, unless you move right out to the outside.

I think they are also called "balanced stairs" in ENglish, and there are one or two more terms which I can confirm for you when I get back home tomorrow.

At any rate, for these expressions to be understood (certainly in English and probably in French too), the reader would have to be a stairs expert.

From The Penguin Dict. of Building:
balanced step, dancing step, French flier - A tapered tread with an eccentric springing point, used in the corner of a sweeping type of geometric stair, rarely seen outside France. Balanced steps have constant going on the walking line but the faces of several steps are swung on plan to increase the inside going of winders by reducing that of fliers (From the French \'balancé\', in this sense usually translated as \'swung, tilted, see-saw\'.).

geometric stair - A stair which on plan may be circular, semi-circular, or elliptical. It has tapered treads, no newel posts, and often no landings between floors ...

Jane Lamb-Ruiz: As a generic category. I NEVER said in my second remark that FRENCH stairs are not balance. i said grosso modo, they correspond to angled as opposed to the other. I know they have their particularities. This context didn't require super technicalties. :)

1 hr

-> Think what you like. I KNOW ' balancé' is THE name for them (have 3 sets of them in my house, 4 in my apartment bldg). See addition above.

If you\'ve had some experience of fitting carpet in a room, you could save money by laying your own stair carpet. This is how to tackle a straight run of stairs - angled stairs use the same technique but the excess carpet must be folded up against the risers.
Buy the best carpet you can afford since stairs take a lot of wear and tear.

Time to complete job: 2-3 hours.
Approximate budget: From around £40, depending on the quality of the carpet.

I disagree with Bourth. These are generic stair types even if the minor features are different. I am seeing, Straight, Curved and Angled Stairs...

Obviously, the deepness of the step, whether the angled bit is handled by curving the steps around the bend or having a small landing without steps is irrelevant.

what I meant by disagree BNourth is that the general category is angled., now there may be a sub-category. But when I see that used on a English web site that rents to Brits, then I know it\'s Ok as a general idea. I am not disputing your detailed and intimate knowledge of French angled staircases..I am just saying that in this description angled sufficed..that\'s where my disaagrement lies.

Bourth's description was spot on (I had an illustration), but I used Jane's answer "angled staircases", as it was for a caption and space was too limited to include an explanation. It was for a document aimed at non-specialists, anyway.